A Peek at Plans for an $80 Million High-Tech Development in Arizona

Juliet is the senior web editor for StateTech and HealthTech magazines. In her six years as a journalist she has covered everything from aerospace to indie music reviews — but she is unfailingly partial to covering technology.

A Purpose-Built, High-Tech Community

All of this makes the community ripe for development, real estate attorney Grady Gammage, Jr., founding partner of Arizona-based law firm Gammage & Burnham, and representative for the venture, said in a statement.

“Envisioning future infrastructure from scratch is far easier and more cost-efficient than retrofitting an existing urban fabric,” Gammage said in the press release, echoing sentiments from Google’s smart city arm Sidewalk Labs, which has planned a $50 million investment into building a smart city from scratch on a 12-acre stretch on the outskirts of downtown Toronto.

Sidewalk Labs has said that it’s city, built “from the internet up,” will look to address growing urban issues, such as the rising cost of housing and long commutes as well as push for greater sustainability, ubiquitous connectivity and the creation of a new “public realm” that aims to open space back up for pedestrians.

While the aims of the Belmont development are vaguer, it presents a similar opportunity to build a high-tech urban area from scratch as opposed to updating and upgrading existing infrastructure.

Accordingly, the development company, Belmont Partners, has planned 80,000 residential units; 3,800 acres of industrial, office and commercial space; 3,400 acres of open space and 470 acres for public schools.

Specifically, developers seek to build a futuristic community with a “communication and infrastructure spine that embraces cutting-edge technology, designed around high-speed digital networks, data centers, new manufacturing technologies and distribution models, autonomous vehicles and autonomous logistics hubs,” the statement says.

Gammage calls the investment a “patient” one, and as mobility technologies mature, more specific plans for the Arizona community will likely come to light. For now, the company is confident that the city is perfectly positioned to introduce emerging technologies in a truly transformative way for future city residents.

“We know of virtually no other property in the United States so strategically positioned, already entitled, and yet presenting a nearly blank slate of opportunity,” Gammage says.